Carrefour expects negotiations to buy Alfa stake completed shortly

Paris (ANTARA News) - PT Carrefour Indonesia, a unit of Carrefour, said Wednesday it expects negotiations for the purchase of a majority stake in retailer PT Alfa Retailindo to be completed shortly.

"We have just signed a memorandum of understanding for the stake purchase. We hope an agreement can be reached over the next few days," Carrefour Indonesia corporate affairs director Irawan Kadarman told Thomson Financial.

Earlier today, the company said it was planning to acquire a 75 percent stake in PT Alfa Retailindo from key Alfa shareholders PT Sigmantara Alfindo and Prime Horizon Pte Ltd.

Kadarman however declined to comment on how much Carrefour was offering for the stakes.

PT Sigmantara Alfindo owns 55 percent of Alfa Retailindo, Prime Horizon holds 40 percent and 5 percent is held by the investing public.

Prime Horizon is an investment company jointly owned by Citigroup Financial Products Inc, CIMB Group Sdn Bhd and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (Ventures) Pte Ltd through its wholly owned unit, Archipelago Investment Pte Ltd.

Prime Horizon bought Alfa Retailindo shares from cigarette maker HM Sampoerna and Sigmantara Alfindo in September last year.

Alfa Retailindo operates supermarkets.

Earlier, Indonesian retailer PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa had offered to buy PT Sigmantara Alfindo and Horizon's stakes in Alfa Retailindo for 1,600 rupiah per share.

Ramayana later cancelled the deal due to disagreement over certain provisions of the sale-and-purchase agreement.